To add, "verbal commitments" mean next to nothing in diplomacy. During the New START treaty negotiations, Russians heard a verbal commitment from our side to limit missile defenses. Obama personally had to walk it back. 1/ THREAD
https://twitter.com/DrRadchenko/status/1495303404142436354
He told Medvedev that we would never commit to that in a written agreement. I was there with him during the call. It was a very tough call. 2/ 
When the treaty was signed, none of these "verbal commitments" showed up in the final text. A real, credible commitment not to expand NATO would have been codified in a treaty. Or at least a joint statement. It was not. 3/
Talk is cheap. Experienced politicians & diplomats, including Gorbachev, know that. (Listen to Putin today. He has said 100 times that he not going to invade Ukraine!) 4/ END THREAD.
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